West Virginia placed first in the women’s competition and second in the men’s at its three-day swimming and diving invitational this weekend.
The home competition hosted 16 women’s teams and 12 men’s teams from Thursday to Saturday in Mylan Park. The men’s team finished with 1640 points in the days to place second behind the U.S. Naval Academy (2358 points) while the women’s team outdid Navy 1206-1185 to win it all. The two teams combined for second place overall behind Navy.
The invitational win is a good sign for the women’s team, who is 0-2 in meets this season. The team trailed Navy going into the final day, but the Mountaineers, headlined by a first place finish in the 200 breast from sophomore Mia Cheatwood, outperformed them Saturday to win the invitational.
Cheatwood was WVU’s top women’s scorer for the weekend, as she placed second in the 200 IM and on the 400-yard medley relay team on Thursday, second on the 200-yard medley relay team and first in the 100 breaststroke on Friday, and first in 200 breast and third on the 400-yard freestyle relay team on Saturday.
For the men’s team, the second place finish keeps a similar trend of how the team has performed thus far, as they placed first at the WV State Games in October and are 1-1 in meets.
The men had several first-place finishers during the weekend, including 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breaststroke wins for senior Danny Berlitz, a 200 freestyle victory for senior Roanoke Shirk, and a first place finish for junior Conner McBeth in the 100 freestyle.
The three swimmers teamed up for two relay wins as well, winning the 200-yard freestyle relay on Thursday with junior Braden Osborn and the 400-yard freestyle relay on Saturday with sophomore Max Nielsen. Berlitz, Shirk, Nielsen, and redshirt freshman Christian Simpson also won 800-yard freestyle relay on Friday for a relay win on each day.
Across all events, WVU had 17 women’s finalists and 28 men’s finalists at the invitational. The Mountaineers’ 2,846 points made them one of three teams combining for over 2,000 points, alongside Navy (3,543) and Delaware (2,050.5).
The team will compete next at the Almost Heaven LC Open just under a month from now. The tournament runs from Dec. 16 to Dec. 19 at The Aquatic Center at Mylan Park.
Photo from WVU Swimming & Diving
